Judge denies Wanke’s request to reinstate bond

The Rockford attorney who was shot and killed outside his home last week was shot at three months ago within 100 yards of where he died.

Corina Curry

The Rockford attorney who was shot and killed outside his home last week was shot at three months ago within 100 yards of where he died.

Attorney Gregory Clark told police last fall that he believed he was being shot at as he took his garbage to the curb. Neither he, nor anyone else, saw a shooter, but Clark, an expert outdoorsman, told police that he heard shots and smelled gunpowder.

That was Nov. 4.

On Nov. 5, Clark was in court with his court-appointed defendant, Richard Wanke Jr., 46, who had been convicted by a jury of burglary and was set to be sentenced.

Instead, on that date, Wanke argued to get a new trial, saying Clark failed to represent him well.

Judge John Truitt, who presided over Wanke’s trial, denied Wanke’s request for a new trial but granted Wanke’s request to have his sentencing hearing postponed to December so that his sister and his roommate, Diane Chavez, could be subpoenaed to testify on his behalf.

Prosecuting attorney Margie O’Connor of the Winnebago County state’s attorney’s office offered the information about the Nov. 4 shooting in court Friday as she argued to keep Wanke behind bars as a person of interest in the police investigation of Clark’s Feb. 6 shooting death.

Wanke has been identified by witnesses as being at the scene of the shooting, driving the van that was used as a getaway car, O’Connor said, and some witnesses gave police a description of the shooter that matches Wanke.

“When this happened to Greg Clark, there were people who resided in the area. There were people outside,” O’Connor said. “The area is new construction. There are a limited number of houses in the area. The van that witnesses saw outside Clark’s home was out of place.”

Wanke hasn’t been charged in the homicide, O’Connor said, but the information linking him to the crime and the likelihood that he will be charged is enough to hold him in jail without bond.

Wanke, who was out of jail on bond awaiting sentencing in the burglary case, has been in jail on no bond since Feb. 6 on Truitt’s orders.

Truitt jailed Wanke that day based on the information from the police, the same information that O’Connor shared with the court Friday. Truitt granted O’Connor’s request to keep Wanke in jail on no bond, meaning Wanke can post no amount of money to gain release.

Wanke’s new court-appointed attorney, David Brown, argued that Wanke’s previously set $10,000 bond be reinstated and his client be freed. Brown said the eyewitness reports could be wrong and that his client deserved to know who the witnesses are and exactly what they said they saw, information that was not stated in open court.

“What are the facts that support the identification of my client?” Brown asked. “The description of the vehicle that witnesses saw is not known. The witnesses are not known.”

Wanke is a person of interest in the police’s investigation into Clark’s Feb. 6 death.

Chavez, Wanke’s roommate, has been charged with obstructing justice in connection to Clark’s death.

She is alleged to have lied to police when they came to her home Feb. 6 looking for Wanke. Police believe the van used in the shooting belongs to Chavez, who is in jail on a $500,000 bond. Witnesses told police they saw both the van and Chavez outside Clark’s home the day before Clark was killed.

Clark was Wanke’s court-appointed attorney in a 2006 burglary case. A jury found Wanke guilty in September. He was last scheduled to be sentenced for the burglary Feb. 8, two days after Clark was shot three times in the back as he cleared snow from outside his Oakforest Drive home.

O’Connor also told the court Friday that Wanke was “vocal in his dislike” for Clark.
Wanke will return to court next week for a status hearing on his pending sentencing.

Staff writer Corina Curry can be reached at 815-987-1395 or ccurry@rrstar.com.